Compares the U.S. and British methods of teaching economics to undergraduate students. Examines the course objectives, the syllabi, the hiring and training of staff, the teaching system, and assessment and monitoring systems. Concludes that the British curriculum focuses on a narrower range of subjects. (GG)

Notes the need for political development courses, but points out the lack of agreement about scope and methodologies. Explores the theoretical and substantive problems in construction of such courses for the 1990s. Discusses attempts to identify a core subject matter, stating that the broader range of theory and subject has freshened discourse on…

Attempts to outline the necessary design considerations for an English for Specific Purposes (ESP) course. A more adequate descriptive base for course design includes theoretical justification for including an ethnographic perspective, and a case example of the design of a communications skills course for computer practitioners in Oman. (Author/CB)

Addressed are the complexities of defining curriculum. Curriculum decision-making involves value judgments and distribution problems. Four principal considerations of systematic curriculum development include what to study, who is taught, how to teach, and the interrelationship between subject matters. (SI)

Presents a scope and sequence for social studies grounded in global education. Four essential elements set the boundaries for the scope of the curriculum: (1) the study of systems; (2) the study of human values; (3) the study of persistent issues; and (4) the study of global history. Illustrates how these themes are sequenced throughout grades…

Summarizes six curricular approaches to the teaching of international relations at the college level. Assesses some of the purposes and rationales of these approaches and discusses the merits of each approach. Concludes that development of curricula has largely failed to address questions of both substance and pedagogy. (KO)

Time demanded for essential nursing practice tasks has meant that there has been little left for an emphasis on cultural awareness in Australian nursing education. Specific suggestions are made for incorporating cultural awareness into the existing curriculum. (SLD)

Describes the development of an introductory undergraduate geography course that applies human and physical geography to an environmental problem. Discusses reasons for the course and its content and structure. Identifies the focus on a single environmental problem, emphasis on both physical and social processes, and course design as the program's…

Describes the planning, implementation, and evaluation of an integrated student soil science project. Reports that the course was designed to develop student-centered approaches to learning and to develop transferable skills and personal qualities at the same time. Explains that the project included fieldwork, laboratory analysis, data…

Describes a mastery-based learning design developed for an advertising skills course. Discusses the benefits of mastery-based learning for students and teachers. (MG)

Reviews the book, "Historical Literacy: The Case for History in American Education" edited by Paul Gagnon and the Bradley Commission on History in the Schools. Critiques the Bradley Commission's recommendations, and the essays on restructuring history curriculum and improving history instruction. (RW)

Reviews systems approaches as a way of analyzing a distance-education professional-development program and, in particular, issues of management. The strength of the systems approach lies, among other things, in the ways it relates distance-based professional development to environments both internal and external to the institution. (Author/AEF)

Describes the way in which a new applied-physics course introduced in British Columbia as part of a program in applied academics can be seen to construct different networks in different contexts. Employs actor network theory (ANT). Contains 20 references. (DDR)

Explores the assumption that issues-centered instruction is fine for advanced students but too difficult for low-achieving adolescents when reviewing case studies of world geography classes composed of low-achieving students. Concludes that teachers confront numerous difficulties in planning and implementing issues-centered instruction for…

Explains the goals of a course to teach non-science majors how scientists think. Approaches science primarily as a way of knowing rather than as a body of knowledge and conveys the scientific method as an empirical endeavor. (DDR)